(2009-02-06) Obama Faith Based Office

Barack Obama is continuing the Faith Based Office created via Executive Order by George W Bush.

*President Barack Obama has found a new leader for the initiative, and plans to broaden the reach of the effort to a campaign against poverty in announcing his office's new initiative today. He will sign an order in the Oval Office later this morning, and spoke of it just now at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

"The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious groups over secular groups,'' Obama said this morning. "It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.''

Obama's pick to lead a revamped Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is JoshDuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister who directed religious outreach for the Obama campaign. He had been an associate pastor at a Pentecostal church in Massachusetts and holds a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University.*